How Green Is My Judaism?

The June issue of World Jewish Digest addresses "Is Environmentalism a Jewish Issue," featuring a debate between Jay Michaelson--author of God in Your Body: Kabbalah, Mindfulness and Embodied Spiritual Practice and the chief editor of Zeek: A Jewish Journal of Thought and Culture--and Bernard Glick--author of Between Israel and Death, and professor emeritus of political science at Temple University.

In a nutshell:

...in recent years there has been an effort on the part of many Jewish organizations to make "the environment" a Jewish issue. But is it? Is the idea that we should show respect for the Earth, disown Styrofoam plates, drive hybrid automobiles, recycle our trash - to cite just a few examples - a Jewish notion? Is there anything in our tradition that points to environmental consciousness as a Jewish value?

According to Michaelson:

...our biblical and rabbinic ancestors had no concept of environmentalism. An ideal of "preserving the natural environment" depends on the ability to destroy it, and so looking in second century text for environmentalism is like looking in today's legal codes for laws regarding the destruction of planets and asteroids.

Not only is biblical text silent on environmentalism specifically, it is ambiguous on matters related to it. For example, God's famous injunction to "rule the earth and subdue [it]" has been read by some, including many critics of Judaism, as permitting or even mandating the despoiling of nature by humankind. But lately the same verse has become a watchword of Jewish environmentalists, who read the Hebrew "u'rdu et ha'olam" as requiring wise stewardship, not devastation. If we are to act as God's designated overseers of the world, surely we should protect our charge, rather than destroy it. Given that both interpretations are plausible, which is correct?

But according to Michaelson, Judaism--and Halacha--must address taking care of the environment, in a very serious way (even to the degree of eco-kashrut and asking "Is it ever O.K. to eat on foam plates?"):

...a Jewish environmental ethic is not going to consist of touchyfeely, hortatory and ultimately toothless statements about being nice to Mother Earth. No, it will entail requirements, obligations and admonitions. It's all very nice to accentuate the positive, feel good about changing light bulbs from incandescent to fluorescent and plant a tree in Israel every now and then. But if we're serious that Judaism requires environmental stewardship, then we have to say some difficult things.

For example, owning an SUV, except in rare cases, is a transgression of bal tashchit, the prohibition on waste. Not an alternative lifestyle - a violation of the law. Except when such a vehicle is actually needed, it wastes energy and unnecessarily accelerates climate change, all in the name of serving the yetzer hara, the selfish inclination. Likewise, buying a house far bigger than one needs or failing to recycle are also violations of bal tashchit. The details will, of course, vary, and there is little black and white; for some people, a large car is necessary to take children to school while for others, it's just waste. But the norm, and its moral-religious weight, is clear. Selfishness is not stewardship and disregarding the Earth is not an act of kedusha (holiness).

This kind of language may not be popular, but I submit that this sternness of vision is what our Jewish tradition demands. Of course, we must not be judgmental; none of us is perfect and none can stand in judgment of another. Nor need we be dour or fanatical; life is a gift to be enjoyed, and Jewish law is famously accommodating of humanity. Sometimes, nu, you make accommodations. But the Ten Commandments are not suggestions. The Golden Rule is not a "guideline." If Judaism means anything, it means taking seriously our ethical responsibilities - and not waffling on the details.

Glick's position is very straigtforward--Not every issue is a Jewish issue:

Many Jews, particularly those who are young, educated, secular and well off, see themselves as citizens of the world. I met these Jews - Reform, Conservative, Reconstructionist and unaffiliated - when I was a full-time professor and now I encounter them in places like Portland, Ore., where I have retired, and the San Francisco Bay area, which I often visit.

If these Jews were to publish a manifesto, its first paragraph would read: "As universalists in spirit and ethics, and as a scattered people who, except in Israel, always live in two cultures, we Jews must take the lead in narrowing national and religious differences. It is incumbent upon us to save the world."

For the Jews I am describing, saving the world is much more important than saving the Jewish people - including the people of the State of Israel. While they may not wish to see the Jewish state wiped off the map, as Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinezhad has frequently vowed to do, too many of them would not sit shiva if Israel were to perish.

...Global warming is not a greater threat to Jews than Islamic terror. Using longer-lasting light bulbs is not on a par with putting a mezuzah on your doorposts. Driving a hybrid automobile is not a biblical or a Talmudic mitzvah. Biking to work may make you feel virtuous, but it doesn't make you more Jewish. And recycling your trash and newspapers does not give you any special consideration when you finish walking on this earth and ascend to Heaven. What may give you a leg up with the Almighty is what you did personally to continue the marvelous thousands-yearold Jewish journey. It is not tribalism or particularism to want the Jewish people to continue to live. Those American Jews of any age or status who have no interest in or who reject the concept of hemshech (Jewish continuity) have been mis-educated by both their parents and their teachers.

...Diaspora Jews, including those in the United States, are accustomed to living in two societies: a Jewish one and a larger one of which they are part. In both societies, they are obliged to take stands each day. But they are also obliged to note that not every issue is a Jewish one. For if every issue becomes a Jewish issue, then nothing is a Jewish issue. And if nothing is a Jewish issue, then the Jewish journey will come to an end, and no one, including the most devoted Gentile environmentalists, will worry about the Jews, fight for them and, when they are bloodied and beaten, weep for them.

Read the whole thing.

And here are some numbers to think about--provided in part by The Coalition on the Environment and Jewish Life (COEJL)



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